An embellished memoir, in short spurts.

I got chocolate on my Fortune Cookie

When I was a teenager, I thought happiness was when everything would be okay and there would be no problems. That’s not happiness, that’s death.

As I get older, I realize happiness is in the moments and the minutes, not necessarily in the things we accumulate.

Life is messy. It doesn’t always go according to our plans and predictions. Like the fortune cookie, we wish for the best, but it doesn’t always work out neatly.

Happiness always accompanies with me.

Happiness is watching my dog Bailey dance around the room when I ask him, “Do you want to go for a walk?”

Happiness is hearing my friends laugh as I tell the story of ironing my husband’s good clothes with the tiny travel iron, because the real iron is packed in a box somewhere.

Happiness is learning the secrets to life. I can quote, “A soft answer turns away wrath,” but I saw it in action and it changed my life. An old boss received a phone call from an irate customer. I listened as my boss spoke calmly and asked what the problem was. He told the customer that he was listening, and that he would fix the problem. And he told him with a soft answer. My boss diffused the situation. I grew up in a rather, umm, dramatic household, and de-escalating a situation had never occurred. To me, learning the secret of diffusing a situation was gold–it was like winning the lottery.

Happiness is when my son gives me a hug spontaneously.

Happiness is when I think my husband said, “Is the leopard departed?”, when in fact he said, “Is dinner started?” and instead of getting mad, he laughs. (We are still trying to fix my hearing problems, but that’s another story :-))

Happiness is when my friends pray for my step-father to get well–and even though he almost died twice–he pulls through.

Happiness is when I open the Bible, and it opens to the exact scripture I need at the exact right time.

Happiness is Friday afternoon. 🙂

Have a good weekend everyone and May happiness always accompany with you!